compatibility and the OSD
Chuck Swiger
chuck at codefab.com
Tue Sep 21 16:41:56 UTC 2004
Ernest Prabhakar wrote:
[ ... ]
> Let's consider an extreme case:
>
> A. "You may do anything you want with the source code, but you may only
> redistribute in source form. You are not allowed to redistribute any
> binaries compiled from this source code."
>
> I ask the list: would that conflict with the OSD? Sure, its obnoxious,
> but is it compliant?
It is not compliant. It violates OSD #2: "The program must include source
code, and must allow distribution in source code as well as compiled form."
That 'as well as' clause means that redistributing compiled code must be
permissible for a license to be OSD-compliant. Besides which, for interpreted
code, the source is directly executable.
> Compare with:
>
> B. "You may do anything you want with the source code, including
> redistributing modified versions freely. However, if you distribute a
> modified binary, it must be accompanied with all of the original source
> code under this same license."
>
> Again, would that conflict with the OSD?
This is fine; the rest of OSD #2 covers this case.
--
-Chuck
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